18 h 1 minAudiobook14 minSummaryRead it, hear it, the 15-minute summary, and print and large print at cost
Audiobook edition · 18 h 1 minPaperback · 6 × 9 in · printing soonHardcover · 6 × 9 in · printing soonAbout this book
How far can you trust a slave trader who wants you to like him?
Captain Canot follows Theodore Canot from boyhood in Florence to merchant ships and the slave trade on the West African coast. Told to Baltimore writer Brantz Mayer, his life story takes you onto beaches, into trading posts, and aboard ships where human beings become cargo.
Canot describes a settled business of African rulers, middlemen, foreign merchants, and naval patrols that hunt slave ships. He presents himself as bold, shrewd, and not entirely heartless. As he recounts the trade and the dangerous Atlantic crossing, you face a constant question: what does his account reveal, and what does he excuse?
What you’ll discover
- From Florence to sea Follow a restless boy onto merchant ships before he enters the slave trade.
- The business behind the shore See how coastal trading posts connect rulers, middlemen, and foreign merchants.
- A coast of competing interests Encounter African partners, rivals, and victims within Canot's account of the trade.
- The dangerous Atlantic crossing Read his descriptions of preparations, loading, and the voyage known as the Middle Passage.
- A teller worth questioning Weigh a rare trader's testimony against his wish to judge himself gently.
Who will love it
Readers who love true sea adventure, firsthand accounts of the Atlantic slave trade, West African rivers and kingdoms, and memoirs where a narrator's words show what he leaves out.
What’s inside
The key ideas, in the 15-minute summary
- A survivor becomes a slave trader
- A stranger's lie saves Canot
- Fast ships draw him into slavery
- Human beings become entries in accounts
- His explanations also defend his conduct
- An inland welcome conceals human terror
- Punishment does not end his trading
- A profitable post rests on raids
- Compare his claims with his actions
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Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver
by Theodore Canot; Brantz Mayer · 1854
An Italian sailor swims away from a pirate massacre and drifts into twenty years of slave trading.
Challenging5–10 hours to readEnglish
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In short
Picture a young sailor from Tuscany, stripped to his trousers, swimming through a dark sea while pirates fire at him from the deck of the ship he served on. He lives.
Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver at a glance
- Reading time
- About 9 h 50 min7 h 50 min fast, 11 h 40 min slow
- Length
- 140,400 words
- Library level
- Challenging long sentences, a rich vocabulary
- First published
- 1854by Theodore Canot; Brantz Mayer
Reading time at 238 words a minute (fast 300, slow 200). How long the classics take to read · Updated
From the 15-minute summary · Key idea 1
A restless boy learns the sea early
Theodore Canot is born in Tuscany to a French army paymaster and an Italian mother. His father dies at Waterloo and leaves six children and little money. At nearly twelve, the boy chooses the sea, and in 1819 he sails from Leghorn as an apprentice on the American ship Galatea of Boston.
He speaks no English at first, and the crew blames him for every broken plate. A clerk teaches him English and the captain teaches him navigation. Left alone as acting captain in Boston, he bars an old man from the cabin, bites and kicks him, and fetches a loaded musket. The old man is the ship's owner, who laughs and pays him fifty dollars.
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Which edition is right for me
- 15-minute summary
- The key ideas of the whole book in about 14 minutes. A good first look, or a refresher.
Details
- First published
- 1854
- Language
- English
- Level
- Challenging
Cite this edition
Canot, Theodore, and Brantz Mayer. Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver. Library of Alexandria, 2026, libraryofalexandria.com/products/captain-canot-or-twenty-years-of-an-african-slaver.
Canot, T., & Mayer, B. (2026). Captain Canot; or, twenty years of an African slaver. Library of Alexandria. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/captain-canot-or-twenty-years-of-an-african-slaver (Original work published 1854)
Canot, Theodore, and Brantz Mayer. Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver. Library of Alexandria, 2026. https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/captain-canot-or-twenty-years-of-an-african-slaver.
@book{canot2026captain,
author = {Canot, Theodore and Mayer, Brantz},
title = {Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver},
publisher = {Library of Alexandria},
year = {2026},
url = {https://libraryofalexandria.com/products/captain-canot-or-twenty-years-of-an-african-slaver},
note = {First published 1854}
}
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What is Captain Canot about?
It is the memoir of Theodore Canot, a sailor born in Tuscany who spends about twenty years in and around the slave trade on the West African coast, with piracy, shipwrecks, imprisonment and an attempt at lawful trade.
Who wrote Captain Canot?
Brantz Mayer wrote the book from conversations with Theodore Canot and published it in 1854. The narration is in Canot's own voice, so the text reads as a first-person memoir.
Is Captain Canot a true story?
It is presented as a true account of Canot's life and many people and places in it can be checked. Canot, however, tells it to flatter himself, so readers should weigh his claims against other evidence.
The author
Theodore Canot
1804–1860 · Writer and slave trader
Theodore Canot (1804–1860) was a slave trader and writer born in Florence, Italy. He lived and worked in West Africa and later lived in the United States. His memoir, Captain Canot; Or, Twenty Years of an African Slaver, was published in 1854. He died in Baltimore, Maryland.
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